Lately we have been having some good discussions about the meaning and use of the well-known phrase “once saved, always saved”.
If you are a baptist or have been around church-life much, chances are that you have heard this phrase discussed. Many people prefer the phrase “eternal security” instead of “once saved always saved”. And other people prefer to use perseverance!
I wanted to simply share with you some crucial passages from the Bible that need to be considered in this discussion. It is so healthy for Believers (who are filled with the Spirit) to read God’s Word and then spend time thinking through it. The whole Bible is involved in teaching us how to understand the great work of God saving sinners. But these few passages here are helpful to understanding this discussion.
John 10:28-29
“I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”
1 John 2:19
“They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.”
Romans 10:13
“For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Revelation 13:8
“and all who dwell on the earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.”
James 2:19
“even the demons believe– and shudder.”
Hebrews 6:4-6
“For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance…”